It's called the Oregon Transformation Project, but it could well be called the Clackamas County Transformation Project after the Lake Oswego-based conservative group and its deep-pocketed political action committee propelled John Ludlow and Tootie Smith to victory Tuesday night.

Ludlow and Smith next year will lead a new conservative majority on the Board of County Commissioners, the first time Republicans will enjoy control since 2006. The rightward shift holds the possibility of significant policy reversals on business-related regulations, county expenditures and regional transportation and planning efforts. Several other local efforts the PAC supported, such as the measure opposing a new $10 million Gladstone library, also won, as did several Damascus city councilors.

Ludlow's and Smith's victories were especially remarkable given that President Barack Obama, a Democrat, carried the county 51 percent to Republican Mitt Romney's 47 percent.

The group poured more than $250,000 into the Ludlow and Smith campaigns and another $45,000 into the unsuccessful primary campaign of Jim Knapp, sponsor of a September anti-rail measure that passed who ran for Position 3 on the county commission.

Ludlow on Tuesday night called the group's financial support "critical" to his victory.

"It took a great deal of money," Ludlow said. "It's money I certainly didn't have. OTP is very important to me. I couldn't have made it without them, truthfully."

It was the group's money that allowed Smith to get her name and message out, she said, even though she enjoyed some name recognition from an earlier stint in the state House of Representatives.

"They were the great equalizer coming up against all the unions and the associations that favored my opponent," Smith said. "They gave money to get our names out."

In Ludlow's case, the group's $165,000 investment in him launched a little-known former mayor of Wilsonville onto a regional stage. Despite entering the four-candidate race for chairman last, the group's money helped him eliminate in the primary Commissioner Paul Savas, a fellow Republican who many felt was a shoo-in to win when he entered the race last fall.

The group paid for a series of can't-miss billboards along Interstate 205 that prominently affiliated Ludlow, Smith and Knapp with the pledge to "Stop Portland Creep," a phrase intended to denote opposition to density, crime, congestion and bureaucracy. The group also created an annoyingly catchy "Tootie-Ludlow-Knapp" jingle that dominated radio airwaves in the primary season, helping at least Smith and Ludlow to cut through a crowded primary field of 11 candidates.

Opponents so feared his victory in the final weeks before the election that they launched a campaign of signs proclaiming "John Ludlow is a bully" throughout Clackamas County and portions of Portland. By the time Election Day rolled around, the Oregon Transformation Project's money had elevated Ludlow and Smith to regional notoriety.

Rob Kremer (second from left), co-director of the Oregon Transformation Project's political action committee, celebrated the passage of a Clackamas County anti-rail measure in the Sept. 18 special election. The influential committee has also gotten involved in various local anti-rail measures. Jim Knapp is second from the right in blue.Ross William Hamilton/The Oregonian

Rob Kremer, co-director and treasurer of the Oregon Transformation Project's political action committee and treasurer of the Oregon Republican Party, downplayed the effect his group's dollars had on the race. He said the result hinged on Ludlow's and Smith's support for three successful initiatives and referendums opposing a vehicle registration fee for the Sellwood Bridge replacement and requiring countywide voter approval for new urban renewal districts.

The pair also benefited from the lingering anger of light-rail opponents, who in September voted to require countywide voter approval before the county could spend money on rail projects.

"Yes, they needed to have resources to get their message to the voters, but the only thing we provided was the resources," Kremer said. "It was their message they provided to the voters, and that's why I think they're the critical ones in the equation."

The political action committee's checkbook also demonstrates the risk Republicans take in the county if they fail to win the group's support and face a fellow conservative candidate the group bankrolls. In the primary for chairman, the group targeted Savas with a series of mailers and advertising attacking his record, despite his sharing many of the same policy goals as Ludlow and Smith.

But now, with the more moderate Savas in line to become the crucial swing vote next year, Ludlow and Oregon Transformation Project leaders are eager to make nice. A smiling Savas celebrated with Ludlow and Smith at their election night party at the Monarch Hotel in Clackamas.

Kremer declined to elaborate on why his group didn't support Savas in the primary, saying "that's water under the bridge."

"We're thrilled that there's a governing conservative majority on the Clackamas County Commission," he said, "and Paul, we think, is going to be a solid part of that."